Alan: now keep it up

Alan Reeves has praised the attitude of Wimbledon’s rising talents after an excellent team performance brushed aside Pompey last night.

Though David Fitzpatrick stole the show with a brilliant hat-trick in a 4-1 win for the development squad at home to Portsmouth, Alan Reeves said the hunger of his whole squad to improve is what stood out.

“They are all improving on a regular basis and they just need to keep it up,” said Alan. “The players listen to what I’m telling them and it is a pleasure to work with them on a daily basis. They are all excellent, young gentlemen. The young players are striving to have a future in the game and they are giving themselves every opportunity of doing that.

“They came off absolutely shattered tonight and gave everything, but they do that every week. The players know that I expect them to put the work in. You have to earn the right to play football.”

The young Dons certainly did that last night. Fitzpatrick and Tom Beere shared the goals between them and produced impressive individual displays, but Wimbledon’s back four and midfield – full of academy products – performed with credit.

“All the back five did very well again,” added Alan. “In midfield Dan Gallagher and Tom were up against three in there, but they certainly did not look like they were outnumbered. All the boys put in terrific shifts against a very experienced Portsmouth side.

“I told our players beforehand that some of them may not want to be here and if they don’t start well then we can take advantage. That’s what happened. We’ve had better overall performances this season. However, it was definitely the best we’ve played during the first 25 minutes and for 25 minutes at the start of the second half. It was difficult to keep that up for 90 minutes.”